This movie passed 0 of 3 tests. It was entered by kidlitfan on 2012-10-14 03:06:37.

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kidlitfan said:

There is only one named female character (Elsa van Helsing), not counting her dog (Persphone).
Even though there are unnamed female characters with a lot of lines (Weird Girl, Mrs. Frankenstein), they never talk to each other about anything.

Message posted on 2012-10-14 03:06:38

PJackson disagreed with the rating and said:

Your rating is unfair. If you are going to say the only "named characters" are those whose full name is given then there are only 2 "named" male characters: Victor Frankenstien, and Edgar 'E' Gore. I would personally count both Mrs Frankenstein and Weird girl but if you only want to count fully named characters the test seems invalid in this case as there are only 3 named characters.

Message posted on 2012-10-17 19:06:34

kidlitfan said:

Mrs. Frankenstein does not have a FIRST name. Her name may as well be "Victor's Mom." Be that as it may, she has no interaction with any other female character (other than being in the same place while she and Elsa were talking separately to Victor.).
How do you possibly count "Weird Girl" as a named female character, unless you believe her first name is Weird (short for "Weirdlina, maybe?) and she was born to Mr. and Mrs. Girl?
Even if there WERE three named female characters (and I strongly disagree for the above reasons) the movie doesn't come close to passing the test.
The "not fully named" male characters (including Toshiaki, Bob, Nasser and "E") talk to each other.

Message posted on 2012-10-21 06:52:25

Daniel Hofverberg disagreed with the rating and said:

In my opinion, Mrs. Frankenstein must be considered to have a name, as she at least have a last name. But Weird Girl can definitely not be considered a named character, even though she has some relevance to the plot.

In other words: Counting Mrs. Frankenstein, the movie should be considered passing 1 of 3 tests rather than 0 (as there are two named female characters). It's still of course far from passing the test, but the rating should be updated to 1.

Message posted on 2013-01-15 08:35:43

Mark W. disagreed with the rating and said:

I agree with Mr. Hofverberg. The movie clearly doesn't pass the full test but it does pass the first prong of having two female characters. "Mrs. Frankenstein" is a name, I don't know how that's really disputable. There are hundreds of characters who have appeared throughout movie history where you only find our their surname (Dr. Strangelove and many characters from the Alien movies, for example), but I doubt anybody would consider them to be nameless because their first name is never given.

Message posted on 2013-01-30 06:17:22

Edith disagreed with the rating and said:

Uh...does Elsa talk to Persephone? I think she does but have a feeling it might be about Victor. I hate to say it, but IF she does I reckon that that does mean two female characters talking to each other. Regardless I think it means it passes two of the three tests at least.

The test isn't a test of how feminist the film is. I see it as more of a kind of quite low but measurable bar. To me its more about "wow, and they couldn't even manage that.".

Message posted on 2013-04-20 22:41:19

Ann said:

At first, I agreed that Mrs. Frankenstein had to be considered as a named character, but then I realized... She was only called that way because women take their husband's name after they are married. So 'Frankenstein' is actually the father's name and we never know what *she* is called, as an individual.

Considering the feminist implications of the Bechdel test, I agree with the classification.

Message posted on 2013-05-18 09:38:05

Cat said:

But surely her maiden name was only her maiden name because her Mother took her Father's surname. And her Mother's maiden name was what it is because she, in turn, took her husband's surname? So unless you can trace a name back to it's roots and change it to that legally, I would say that the surname shown on your current legal documents is your name...
The father is only ever referred to as 'Mr. Frankenstein' and the teacher as 'Mr. Rzykruski' - does that mean that their characters don't matter either?
I always thought that 'named character' meant that they were mentioned in the title as something more than 'girl at bar #1'. So nicknames should count...
By your definition, people like Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs wasn't a character worth mentioning!
'Scuse any mistakes - in a hurry!

Message posted on 2013-09-16 16:00:25

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